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Portraiture is a very well known, important and popular genre within the visual arts. One only has to look at the thousands that flock each year to the Art Gallery Of New South Wales to view the finalists in the Archibald Prize.
What is less well known is how good theatre can be at portraiture.The intimacy and immediacy of live performance suit the genre well.
Prominent Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith, in her 2014 play SWITZERLAND, produced by the Sydney Theatre Company and performed at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, delved into the mind and gave us a portrait of American crime novelist and short story writer Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995), most famous for her five Mr Ripley novels. As a writer she was brilliant and prolific, but like many creative artists, she was a very difficult and unpleasant person.
With her new play JULIA, commissioned by the Sydney Theatre Company, Murray-Smith gives audiences a portrait, a mini bio play, that pivots around Julia Gillard’s legendary misogyny speech which she delivered whilst she was Prime Minister on the 9th October 2012.
Murray-Smith’s play is essentially an extended monologue, performed spectacularly well by Justine Clarke, and another actress, Jessica Bentley, playing a role that can perhaps best be described as part assistant, part observer, Julia observing herself.
The only time in the play when there is an attempt to have Clarke ‘morph’ into Gillard is when she sits in front of a mirror, dons a wig, and goes on to deliver the legendary speech.
Sarah Goodes direction is inspired and assured. Her creative team extraordinary work; chief amongst them Renee Mulder’s brilliant multi-reflective set, Steve Francis’ subtle, evocative score and Susie Henderson’s equally evocative video design.
What is the portrait one is left with of the 27th Prime Minister of Australia, who governed for just over three years?! A brilliant visionary, a trailblazer for women in leadership positions; a dreamer, but much more importantly a great doer. Under her Government a huge amount of bills were passed, and schemes like the National Disability Insurance Scheme were initiated.
Julia spoke of the advice of Paul Keating to sometimes take a step back, after all, ‘we all get carried out in a box’. She wanted to make a difference, driven by a strong conscience, inspired by her father. Julia had a terrible time being the first female Prime Minister. There is a strong belief that many lessons have been learned and things will be a much clearer path when there is the next female Prime Minister.
A joint Sydney Theatre Company and Canberra Theatre Centre production, Joanna Murray-Smith’s JULIA is playing the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, until 20th May 2023
Production pics by Prudence Upton
